Google Overhauls Several Important APIs, Launches APIs Console

Google offers a large number of APIs for its various products and is now revamping several of them, while retiring others. Google is also launching the APIs Console, a central place to manage any of the Google APIs you may use.

"We’re excited about the opportunities that the new APIs console and this first batch of APIs built on our new API architecture will offer to developers," the Google Developer Team wrote.

"Even though we’ve been building APIs for several years now and are quickly approaching 100 tools, products, and APIs for developers, we still feel like we’re just getting warmed up," it added.

An important part of the big announcement today is the new APIs Console. This will enable developers to log in and see all of the APIs they are currently using.

They will be able to manage the APIs, track usage, see if they are getting close to the API rates and so on. The console will also come in handy if you have a team of developers working on the same project.

For Google, it enables the company to better manage the developers that access its APIs. For now, the console will enable developers to manage about half a dozen APIs, but Google says more will be added shortly.

Google is also retiring several APIs. The new Google Custom Search API will replace the Web Search API and a new Translation API is being introduced. The Local Search API is being retired as well. These will be phased out over the next three years.

Google is touting the Custom Search API the most. As the name implies, the API will enable website owners to deploy search capabilities to their site without having to develop an entire search infrastructure.

The company is encouraging developers to switch over to the new APIs. Existing APIs will also be integrated in to the APIs Console eventually.